places I can't afford,
(nice photos)
http://www.cactusexpeditions.com.ar/
http://www.viridis.net/cactus/peru/
success of the week
http://www.cactos.com.br/us/index.php?o ... &Itemid=67
a place I might afford
http://www.loscabosguide.com/cactimundo.htm
places to go
What is the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative?
Frequently Asked Questions about the New Travel Document Requirements
http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cbpm ... _2225.html
Frequently Asked Questions about the New Travel Document Requirements
http://www.travel.state.gov/travel/cbpm ... _2225.html
Hello YumAz,
having lived my first 20 plus years in Europe, I was very surprized when I joined the U.S. government, that people were crossing the border from Mexico by just saying "American citizen" and if questioned further producing maybe a tattered birth certificate, school ID, Social Security card or other document, oftentimes without any photo at all! There were border crossers that said "American city", could not speak English, etc. and hoped to be let into the country. I did haul a number of them into the U.S. Immigration Service office only to be presented a few minutes later with a paper that said "OK to pass". I believe there is no other country in the world that had such lax admission standards. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative is finally an attempt to correct that situation, albeit a very late one. There has been - and still is - substantial opposition to implementing it. Local businesses are opposed, because they are afraid they are going to lose customers from Mexico. People who have family members in Mexico also do not like to have to shell out money to obtain a passport. As far as I know the date for enforcing it for land travel from Mexico has been postponed by half a year or so. There are also efforts being made to have something like a U.S. government approved ID that would cost little or could be obtained free of charge. It is ironic though, that while travel in Europe is being relaxed with the EU nations becoming almost borderless, the U.S. is tightening its admission policy.
Harald
having lived my first 20 plus years in Europe, I was very surprized when I joined the U.S. government, that people were crossing the border from Mexico by just saying "American citizen" and if questioned further producing maybe a tattered birth certificate, school ID, Social Security card or other document, oftentimes without any photo at all! There were border crossers that said "American city", could not speak English, etc. and hoped to be let into the country. I did haul a number of them into the U.S. Immigration Service office only to be presented a few minutes later with a paper that said "OK to pass". I believe there is no other country in the world that had such lax admission standards. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative is finally an attempt to correct that situation, albeit a very late one. There has been - and still is - substantial opposition to implementing it. Local businesses are opposed, because they are afraid they are going to lose customers from Mexico. People who have family members in Mexico also do not like to have to shell out money to obtain a passport. As far as I know the date for enforcing it for land travel from Mexico has been postponed by half a year or so. There are also efforts being made to have something like a U.S. government approved ID that would cost little or could be obtained free of charge. It is ironic though, that while travel in Europe is being relaxed with the EU nations becoming almost borderless, the U.S. is tightening its admission policy.
Harald
I'm afraid Katharine Lee Bates America the Beautiful was trumped not so long ago by Robert Allen Zimmerman's The Times They are a Changin' 
Indeed a touchy subject here we've touched on. Seems that the old adage "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch" applies. A handful of wacky miscreants are responsible for the bulk of the rules and regulations the rest of us have to deal with.
Indeed a touchy subject here we've touched on. Seems that the old adage "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch" applies. A handful of wacky miscreants are responsible for the bulk of the rules and regulations the rest of us have to deal with.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
but, you can't dance to Dylan.
Most of us need to believe, somehow, that we will always dance again. That's the crazy thing about hope. How empty and alone must one be to be void of hope?
Did the children of Darfur stop dancing when they lost hope? Or did they lose hope when they could no longer dance?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne ... dren_n.htm
(even the elephants are going crazy)
especially orphans who've watched the death of their parents and elders from poaching and culling — exhibit behaviour typically associated with trauma-related disorders in humans: abnormal startle response, unpredictable asocial behaviour, inattentive mothering and hyper-aggression.
"When these early experiences go in a positive way, it leads to greater resilience in things like affect regulation, stress regulation, social communication and empathy. But when these early experiences go awry in cases of abuse and neglect, there is a literal thinning down of the essential circuits in the brain, especially in the emotion-processing areas."
Too much about elephants — their desires and devotions, their vulnerability and tremendous resilience — reminds us of ourselves to dismiss out of hand this revolt they're currently staging against their own dismissal. And while our concern might ultimately be rooted in that most human of impulses — the preservation of our own self-image — the great paradox about this particular moment in our history with elephants is that saving them will require finally getting past ourselves; it will demand the ultimate act of deep, interspecies empathy.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Conten ... 8332188854
Most of us need to believe, somehow, that we will always dance again. That's the crazy thing about hope. How empty and alone must one be to be void of hope?
Did the children of Darfur stop dancing when they lost hope? Or did they lose hope when they could no longer dance?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne ... dren_n.htm
(even the elephants are going crazy)
especially orphans who've watched the death of their parents and elders from poaching and culling — exhibit behaviour typically associated with trauma-related disorders in humans: abnormal startle response, unpredictable asocial behaviour, inattentive mothering and hyper-aggression.
"When these early experiences go in a positive way, it leads to greater resilience in things like affect regulation, stress regulation, social communication and empathy. But when these early experiences go awry in cases of abuse and neglect, there is a literal thinning down of the essential circuits in the brain, especially in the emotion-processing areas."
Too much about elephants — their desires and devotions, their vulnerability and tremendous resilience — reminds us of ourselves to dismiss out of hand this revolt they're currently staging against their own dismissal. And while our concern might ultimately be rooted in that most human of impulses — the preservation of our own self-image — the great paradox about this particular moment in our history with elephants is that saving them will require finally getting past ourselves; it will demand the ultimate act of deep, interspecies empathy.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Conten ... 8332188854